Travel Diary: March 2015

Travel date 19 Feb to 24 Feb 2015. 5D4N. KUL to NRT on this flight MH88.
Aircraft type Airbus A330-300. Reg no 9M-MTJ.

Seated at row 31. Ontime pushback for the 11.35pm take-off slot.

45 minutes into the flight, light refreshment was served. Boxed sandwich with fruit juice. The main meal was served later into the flight at about 4am Kuala Lumpur time. Too sleepy to take picture of that.

And while helping myself to the sandwich meal, IFE screen inflight navigation indicated the aircraft is already flying over the South China Sea after 1 hour of flight time, location somewhere close to the Igari waypoint.

Navigation map of the flight path to Tokyo and flight information displayed on screen.

At 5.00am Kuala Lumpur time, the sun was already out. Lift up the window shades and outside was already bright and sunny. Roughly less than an hour left before we descend for landing.

Final approach to runway 34R Narita airport.

Narita Airport Terminal 2, airside. before customs immigration and baggage collection.

Landside. Arrival hall level.

Outside the arrival hall, where the bus stops are located. Chilly 2c temperature this fine morning in Narita airport.

Our shuttle bus to Mercure Hotel Narita stops at bay no 32 terminal 2. Check schedule on display for the next shuttle service. This bay is also for Narita Airport Rest House and APA Hotel shuttle bus.

Missed the first shuttle. Ample time to explore terminal 2, freshen up and have a quick breakfast. Took the next shuttle service at 920am.

The shuttle will also stop at terminal 1 first to pick up more passengers before heading to Mercure hotel at Narita city.

On the way to Narita city.

Passing by Tobu Hotel Narita. This hotel is located just on the outskirt of the airport perimeter.

While on the shuttle bus to Narita city, passed by Narita JAL hotel, ANA Crowne Plaza hotel, Hilton Narita hotel, Excel Narita Tokyu hotel, Narita View hotel. These hotels are nearer to the airport.

Approaching Narita city.

30 minute ride on the shuttle bus from the airport to Narita Mercure hotel.

Narita Mercure hotel.

Surprisingly spacious room. Double bed configuration with enough space to walk about in the room.

Compact bathroom. Nice and clean.

View outside the hotel room window. Mercure Narita hotel is situated between two rail lines. One serves the JR line and the other one is Keisei Line. The location of this hotel is very convenient to catch a train.

Walkabout around the hotel vicinity. Easy access to convenient stores and food outlets.

Strolling along Omote-Sandou. Experiencing the heritage neighborhood of Narita.

Naritasan Shinsho-ji shrine. About 20 minutes walk from Mercure Narita hotel.

A quick preview of the ticket system at both Narita Keisei station and JR station before the train journey to Tokyo on the next day. The anxiety builds up just thinking of how to purchase Tokyo train tickets for the first time.

Day 2. After breakfast at the hotel, the journey to downtown Tokyo begin. Decided to use the Keisei train service. This walkway lead to the Keiseinarita station. Luckily, the person on duty at the ticket counter courteously gave information and instruction on how to use the ticket machine.

First train ride is from KeiseiNarita station to Aoto station. The view outside the window as train approaches the big city. Change train at Aoto station.

Oshiage Station platform level.

Above the Oshiage station is the Tokyo Skytree tower. Magnificent view of the tower on a clear sunny day.

Close up view of Tokyo Skytree.

Visitors posing for the camera with Skytree tower.

Tokyo Solamachi mall and commercial blocks at the base of the Skytower. Many visitors gather outside the mall to gaze at the tall structure.

Next train ride is from Oshiage station to Ginza station, via the Tokyo Metro.

The Ginza district.

This must be a luxurious and popular shopping area.

The main streets are closed to motorized traffic on weekends. Makes it a wonderful opportunity for shoppers and pedestrians to stroll along in the middle of the streets.

Coffee tables and chairs, park bench on the streets. Neat idea to have them right in the middle of this vehicle free streets. Shoppers and visitors can rest for a while enjoying the surroundings before they carry on with their activities.

Spotted this cool bicycle parked outside a shop. A convenient way to commute with a child in the back seat and another toddler in the front carrier compartment.

Train ride back to hotel in Narita. From Ginza station to Ueno station on the Tokyo Metro.

Then transfer to Keisei line train from Ueno station to Keiseinarita station.

Some of the pics taken from the train window, heading back to hotel, towards Narita.

Day 3. A cold and wet morning to start the day.

Taking a shuttle bus to Aeon Mall Narita. Bus stop is located in front of the Keisei Narita train station.

Queue for the Aeon bus on lane 6.

Typical vending machines sitting at the corner of the bus stop. These can be spotted everywhere.

Here comes the shuttle bus. All aboard to Aeon Narita.

The service frequency is good, Spotted another pink Aoen shuttle bus on the other side of the road.

About 30 minute ride to get to Aeon Narita. Just a quick visit to the mall. Bought chocolates and some other food stuff at the supermarket.

Outside at the car park area, while waiting for the Narita Aeon mall shuttle bus to get back to hotel. Seems that the popular car choices here in Narita are the small compact ones.

One particular model that caught my attention is this one by Honda. I think this model is called the Honda N Box.

The second train ride into Tokyo is via the Keisei Skyliner express train service. For this, we had to catch the train from Narita Airport station. Seats must be reserved at the time of ticket purchase.

We took the 14.42 service, and the poster at the ticket counter says journey into Tokyo is only 36 minutes.

Very clean and sleek interior on board the Skyliner train.

No surprise there. A drinks vending machine is available on board this Skyliner train.

Street level, Keisei Ueno train station.

Ueno streets.

Arrived rather late to Ueno park. The temperature was already dropping then. A bit too cold for a nice quiet stroll in the park.

A mini concert show on the park grounds.

At sunset we left Ueno park. The neon lights were starting to light up at Ueno main street.

Next, catch a train from Ueno to Akihabara. JR Ueno station is huge and always crowded. Took us a moment to locate station names and service line information from the oversized rail network map on the wall.

Purchase tickets, checked. Next task, go to the correct train platform. This is one of the big stations in Tokyo that you can catch the high speed Shinkansen bullet trains to other parts of Japan. And it is always crowded with commuters and travellers.

After a few wrong turns looking for direction to the correct platform, we finally caught our JR train and arrived at JR Akihabara station.

Walked along the streets splashed with neon lights. This place being nicknamed the electric town, many shops offering gadgets, electrical and electronic items can be found here.

The day ended with a train ride from Akihabara station back to hotel via Tokyo Metro and Keisei train service. It was after 9 pm when we reached Keiseinarita station. At least two convenience stores are still open nearby the hotel vicinity. Family Mart and Newdays.

Day 4. This will be the final train trip into Tokyo. First leg of the train ride is from Narita station to Narita Airport station. This is the 9.40am service to the airport.

Journey time from Narita city to Airport by train is about 10 minutes only.
The double deck carriage is the reserved seat cabin on the normal trains. Single deck cars are open seats with no reservation required.

Another fast train option to try out is the Narita Express train service, the NEX train.

10.15am service NEX train, car no 11. Total of 12 cars on this 2 set train. At Tokyo station, 6 cars will be separated, each train set will go to different destination. Ours will end at Ikebukuro.

Very nice and cosy interior on this NEX train.

Train stops slightly longer at Tokyo station to detach the 2 train sets. We remained in our seat to continue train ride direct to Shibuya station.

Next stop after Tokyo is Shibuya station. Our stop.

Another impressive train service by JR. Enjoyed the train ride.

This is the view outside of Shibuya station. And the star attraction here is the pedestrian crossing and a dog statue.

It would be a waste to come to Shibuya and not take a walk across the pedestrian crossing. So we did, but not before a few minutes of observing the crowds build up then walk across one of the largest pedestrian crossings.

Hachiko the Dog statue.

We started walking on the sidewalks to explore Shibuya. Loop buses are available, but decided to carry on walking instead.

This photo was taken from an overhead bridge as we were strolling around the area. Train passes by this point every few minutes. Makes a good spot to do some trainspotting activities.

Without realizing it, we arrived at Harajuku district. Walked all the way from Shibuya.

This stretch is filled with massive number of visitors. Just look at the amazing line of crowds walking along the streets.

The last item on our checklist was to visit Tokyo train station. From Harajuku we took the Tokyo Metro from Meijijingumae station to Tokyo station. Tokyo station area is surrounded by tall office buildings.

The Tokyo Station. Nicely preserved heritage building.

The ticket concourse level. Calm and quiet up here. The madness is underground at the platform level.

The platform level was chaotic with commuters dashing about to exit gates or to their trains. Tokyo station is huge. Our train to Narita stops at platform 23 and after many wrong turns and wrong elevators, it took 30 minutes to finally get to platform 23 from the ticket concourse.

It was a pleasant surprise to be able to observe the union of two train sets at Tokyo station. The whole procedure was completed in under 2 minutes and the train was on time to depart right on schedule.

The doors at the front end of the train actually opens up and the two train sets connect to each other via a ramp. That is a clever and innovative feature of this NEX train. Photo below was taken earlier at Narita airport station.

Arrived Narita JR station at 7pm, cold and drizzling weather. Walked back to the hotel, pack our suitcases and have a good rest in the hotel room before the morning flight home on the next day.

Sunrise. 6am. All ready for an early check out. Need to catch the first shuttle bus to airport. Preferred the door to door shuttle bus service, much more convenient to handle the big size luggage.